Facebook, Instagram, Amazon bet big on curated video content

More and more platforms are entering the race to show tailored video content for its users. It looks like Instagram can’t keep away from getting more video content on its platform. In a bid to attract such content, Instagram has launched the ‘Videos You Might Like’ section. It recently increased the duration of footage that could be uploaded and now it makes finding videos lot easier.

Users in the US have been using this feature since April and the ‘Videos you may like section’ has been rolled out worldwide now.

In a blog post, Instagram announced “As people share more videos than ever before, we’re making it easier to discover the ones you’ll love. To begin, you’ll find a personalized channel called ‘Videos You Might Like’ that collects videos from across Instagram’s global community into a seamless viewing experience.”

Instagram has certainly not overlooked the growth of video content in digital media. The new feature is very similar to Facebook’s way of showing curated video to its users. If a user watches a certain genre of video he is bound to be shown similar videos on his Instagram app. This comes as no surprise as Instagram comes from the shadows of Facebook after the takeover by the latter.

Facebook, since early July, has been piloting a new feature allowing users to save videos to watch offline. It seems like Facebook is leaving no stone unturned to compete with YouTube.

Facebook was testing the feature in India because of poor connectivity and lower internet speeds. In order to provide better video content experience Facebook ran the pilot programme for a selected group of publishers.

The competition between Google’s Youtube and Facebook along with Instagram’s recently launched feature is expected to heat up in times to come. Both the social media giants have rolled out various new features in India to attract more users.

Even Amazon, an e-commerce portal, couldn’t keep their hands off providing video content to its users. With the launch of Amazon Prime in India it is hard to avoid the fact that Amazon Prime Video is on its way too. According to the Amazon Prime page users can get exclusive access to Amazon Original Series and Movies, as well as premium movies and TV shows from Indian and global content providers. It is reported that Amazon would be spending an estimated $300 million to make original Prime Video content in India.

Though the kind of content Facebook, YouTube and Instagram provides to its users is different from Hotstar, Netflix or even Amazon Prime Video, the interest in video content by these platforms for Indian users is refreshing.

India’s tryst with video content

India is currently reeling under various issues like low internet speed, high data costs and poor connectivity while other issues like net neutrality seem to be perennially looming over the Indian digital space.

According to a report published earlier this year by Vuclip global video insights 85 percent of viewers in India consume short form video content on smartphones. According to survey results, Indian viewers consider freshness of content (65 percent) and variety in content catalogue as highly important features. Indian viewers also lay greater emphasis on video quality (30 percent) as against those in developed nations (23 percent).

While the demand for content is really high the survey by Vuclip further adds that only 23 percent of the viewers are ready to pay for content online.

Lack of free Wi-Fi zones and other issues that cloud the Indian digital video content growth but as of now that doesn’t seem to be the deterrent for publishers or platforms like Instagram and Amazon Prime. These could be good signs for Indian users as there is a lot to offer and very little to lose.